CEG
LOCAL SUPPORT PUTS YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS CENTRE STAGE
A company set up by three young people from East Anglia is going from strength to strength thanks to the support they have received from local organisations and individuals and a loan from Foundation East, the community finance organisation.
The company, CEG Productions, which supplies stage lighting, sound hire, staging and power for events and drama productions, began in 2007 when three friends aged just 15, 16 and 17 who had all met through their voluntary and paid work providing stage management support, decided to join forces and advertise in the local area. As they took on more paid work in schools and colleges demand for their services grew.
When the youngest of the three left in 2008 the two remaining friends recruited a replacement, another teenager who had already been running his own business, and it was then that they decided to incorporate the business.
It was at this stage that the trio hit a hurdle explains original founding member Emrys Green, from Bury St Edmunds:
“In order to grow the business we needed to increase the amount of equipment we had,” he says. “This involved an investment of a relatively small amount, £1,500. Our bank manager was very supportive but because of our ages we had no credit history and so her hands were tied with when it came to giving us a loan. She suggested we contact a local organisation, Foundation East, who consider applications from businesses with little credit history, and so we did that.”
Foundation East approved a loan providing the capital injection CEG needed and, as Emrys reveals, things snowballed from there.
“Our local loans manager at Foundation East, Valerie Jarrett, was enormously helpful,” he says, “and for us things turned out far better than they would have done had we been able to secure the loan from our bank. Valerie helped us formulate our business plan and would proactively call us to see how we were getting on. I always knew I could call her if I needed to”.
The loan from Foundation East provided a stepping stone for CEG to expand their services and start comfortably offering clients a wider range of equipment hire, technical support and stage management services.
Valerie Jarrett, Business Loans Manager Foundation East, has been delighted to see her faith in the company rewarded as they have gone from strength to strength.
“Although a realistic business plan and cashflow projections are prerequistes for a loan, business is about people,” she explains. “The team behind CEG were young but they have the drive and enterpreneurial spirit to make the company a success. It has been good to see how a small injection of cash has helped to propel the business forward.”
Six months later Emrys' former Deputy Headmaster, clearly impressed with what the company was now doing, stepped in to lend them a further £10,000 and the company, which has recorded year-on-year growth of 100 per cent for the last three years, has just launched an on-line shop (www.cegshop.co.uk). Last year Emrys received national recognition for his achievements with CEG when he made it to the national finals of the Enterprising Young Brits competition thanks to the work of all involved, especially current directors Benjamin Bowles & Gavin Thorrold.
Demand for CEG's services has spread beyond East Anglia with clients now coming to them from London and the South of England but the majority of work still originates within the region. One of the ways which CEG maximises the service it provides is through partnership working with other local companies so that they can share resources, support other local businesses and keep the prices down for customers.
Emrys, who also works as a stakeholder engagement consultant, is glad he was enterprising at such a young age, saying that the best time to set up your own busines is when you have no other responsibilities such as mortgages and family.
“We were all still living at home when we set up CEG,” he says, “and so we didn't have a lot to lose when we started out. Our aim is to become the premier supplier of technical and productionservices in the region.”
More information on the company can be found at www.cegproductions.co.uk or by calling 08000 122679.